The Wildlife and Countryside Act
by MillionMoments
Summary: Richard has gotten a taste for encouraging young officers to reach their full potential, but Camille isn't sure she likes the latest person he's taken under his wing.
1. Act One

Title: The Wildlife and Countryside Act

Rating: T

Category: Richard/Camille, Romance, Jealousy, Bird watching

Summary: Richard has gotten a taste for encouraging young officers to reach their full potential, but Camille isn't sure she likes the latest person he's taken under his wing.

A/N: As you may know, I write whatever I feel like writing rather than struggling to finish something. Largely because if I am enjoying writing it, I feel the quality of what I produce is better. This means sometimes multi chapter fics are finished very quickly, sometimes left for ages and then rapidly finished, sometimes updated regularly. Also, this is not really about birds…even if this chapter really sort of implies it is! Special thanks for Virginie31 who provided me with information about French laws regarding egg collecting.

* * *

Chapter One: Act One

Camille supposed the young woman had sort her out because she had overheard her speaking French to one of the stall holders and wished to receive directions in her own language. She got extra lucky when she asked for directions to the police station as Camille was on her way in to work.

"Is everything ok?" She asked, assuming the woman may have some sort of crime to report. She did look rather nervous.

"Oh yes," she reassured her. "I've not been mugged or anything! I have an appointment with a…" she paused to consult a scrap of paper. "Detective Inspector Richard Poole. I'm Lieutenant Dominique Combes, from Guadeloupe."

They were about to mount the stairs to the station, but Camille paused to ask, "You _can_ speak English, right? Because Richard doesn't know much more French than '_Bonjour_' and '_Merci_' I'm afraid. And he won't even use those if he can get away with it."

"Oh yes," she told Camille, switching to the language in question. "Though my accent is terrible."

Camille gave a small shrug, "I'm sure he'll cope." Though he might not fail to comment on it. Perhaps it would be best if she prepared the Lieutenant. "Richard is a little, um, eccentric. He is an absolutely fantastic police officer, honestly, and not nearly as bad-tempered or finicky as the persona he presents. He's actually very sweet, really, but a bit shy and it can take time to, um -" Camille realised perhaps she was going into a little more detail than necessary, especially since Lieutenant Combes was watching her with a barely suppressed amusement. "Well, anyway, don't be _too_ offended if he is a bit brusque."

At least Camille could say she had warned her.

* * *

Richard could tell from the tone of voice that Dwayne used when he called out a greeting that an attractive woman had just walked in the door. This meant he had a moment to mentally prepare himself to _not_ ogle. Not that he was admitting he actually ever did ogle women…at least, he never did it on purpose. He looked up to see a young woman, probably not much more than 26 or 27, smiling politely at Dwayne. Her hair was relaxed, a term her had learnt when forced to suffer through Catherine and Camille debating the merits of the process when he was trying to enjoy his tea in peace. When they had begun to discuss the cost, he had choked on his tea at the excessive amounts of money involved.

"Why would you spend that sort of money? Your hair is fine!" Catherine had given him a look to indicate that perhaps _fine_ was not the best adjective to go with but before she could say anything Camille had shrugged and agreed it was unlikely to be worth the money. Apparently the woman Dwayne was attempting to chat up _did_ think it was worth the money, and considering it rather suited her perhaps this was true. To go with the nice hair she had big brown eyes and bright smile that led Richard to conclude that he could see why Dwayne was turning on the charm.

They were speaking in French, and it was a surprise to him (and also to Dwayne) when he heard his name mentioned. He apparently knew enough body language (with maybe just enough French by now) to understand the woman was making her excuses and crossing the room to talk to _him_. Thankfully, she switched to English.

"Detective Inspector Poole, I'm Lieutenant Combes, we emailed?"

Well, she was _so_ not what he had been expecting, "Right, of course, yes, you did say it would be around this time, didn't you? Um, nice to meet you." He was blathering in an attempt to hide his surprise. Unfortunately her keen skills of detection picked up on this.

"Is everything ok?" She asked, looking a little concerned. "Is now a bad time?"

"Yes, I mean no, I mean - well yes to everything is ok. And now is fine, I'm just, um, well, truth be told I was expecting a man." She raised both eyebrows at this, and he was struck by a sudden fear she would think he was some kind of sexist who didn't like working with women. "Not that I have a problem with the fact you are a woman!" God, his defensiveness probably just made him come across as more guilty. He might as well have started the sentence with 'I'm not a sexist, but…' "Its fine you're a woman, honest. And I didn't think you were a man from the way you wrote the emails or anything…" Why couldn't he stop speaking? Behind her, he could see Dwayne physically cringing whilst Camille was attempting to suppress a fit of giggles.

"Then why did you?" She asked, wide-eyed.

He looked at the floor in embarrassment, only to find his eyes lingering a little too long on a pair of legs which he sincerely doubted could ever belong to any man. "Um, I went to a school with a Dominique," he offered by way of an explanation, and then realised it clarified nothing. "It was an all-boys school."

"Well that explains it then," She said, smiling. Richard stared, and she continued, "Why you would think I was a man!" He wasn't entirely sure that was _all_ she thought it explained though, and he suddenly realised that she had been _teasing _him. Which, considering she was the most junior rank a detective could hold in the French police forces and he was the local Police Chief, was bloody cheeky. He should reprimand her really, or at least make some show of seniority to remind her they were professionals, but he found himself inexplicably reluctant to do so.

Instead, he clapped his hands together and said, "Right, what can I help you with?" He sat back down behind his desk, indicating that the Lieutenant should take the seat opposite. She did so, pulling her shoulder bag on to her lap and removing a file that she placed on the desk between them. A photograph of a middle aged, rather middle class looking white male was removed and pushed towards him.

"This is Henri Punt, 55, a French National," she explained. Richard noticed that Camille was listening in, considered inviting her over but decided to leave it until he was certain this would require her attention as well. "He arrived on Guadeloupe about a week ago. Punt is a known egg collector. Don't let the appearance fool you, he is an accomplished climber and is suspected of stealing rare eggs to order as well as for his own collection." Richard would admit that if Combes hadn't told him otherwise, he would not have imagined the man shinning up trees.

"Under French law only a specific subset of bird species are protected from egg theft. Whilst on Guadeloupe Punt has had all the appearances of a man on holiday, however he was aware he was being watched closely. He took a few eggs of common, unprotected species – I am not even sure he wanted them for his collection, it was just him showing off that he knows the law. I'm sure you have dealt with similar criminals."

She paused, probably hoping he would sympathise or something, but that wasn't really his place and he was still waiting for her to get to the point of how this was all relevant to him. He indicated she should continue with a slightly impatient gesture of his hand. She looked chastised.

"Punt is booked on to a ferry to Saint Marie tomorrow. We have evidence that he has an order for eggs from, um, I forget the English word. _Pandion haliaetus_?"

"Osprey," Richard supplied quickly.

"_Oui_, _merci_." The Lieutenant looked impressed, and so did Camille behind her. "You like birds, then?"

"Not particularly," he replied. She looked disappointed.

"He went nowhere near the 2 nesting birds on my island. I think he is coming here to go after your nesting pair who have unfortunately decided to do so outside of your nature reserve. No doubt he thinks the police force here is too small to be able to deal with him, and would not even notice he was here."

Richard considered this information, and said with a small nod, "Shouldn't be too difficult to get enough people to volunteer to guard the nest. People are _pretty _passionate about the wildlife round here."

"You say that almost as if it was a bad thing," Camille piped up.

"No, not at all," Richard told her firmly. "But volunteers can't make arrests, can they? And there is _no way_ we can guard it 24 hours a day and I'm not willing to let him disturb the nest in order to make the arrest. It seems unlikely we'd get the chance to charge him with anything, that's all."

"Under French law only a specific subset of bird species are protected from egg theft," Lieutenant Combes repeated.

Richard frowned, "Yes, you said that earlier. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales all birds are protected on the nest actually." She smiled at that, and suddenly Richard realised what she was saying. "We don't have to wait for him to steal Osprey eggs. We could arrest him for any egg."

"_Any_ egg? Even a pigeon egg?" Camille asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, any bird egg. I would have thought you'd approve."

"Well, I suppose I do, but why would anybody steal a pigeon egg?"

"Well there are no members of the _Patagioenas _on mainland France, so he probably would want one for his collection," Dominique offered. "These people are rather obsessed by ticking off as many genera as possible."

"Oh," said Camille, seemingly embarrassed by her lack of pigeon knowledge. Richard hadn't know that fact either – he assumed Lieutenant Combes must want to specialise in wildlife crime or had studied zoology at university. Possibly both.

"And you think if he stumbled across another nest he would take an egg?" Richard asked for confirmation.

"Yes, having read the reports of the officers who followed him, I am certain he would."

"We could follow him for a couple of days, might get lucky I suppose. Do you think he knows the English law? I mean, would we have to be subtle about it?"

"I can help! My commanding officer has given me a few days, Punt is very likely to know the law and I would bet he even goes as far as to familiarise himself with you and your fellow officers so he would know if he was being watched. But I was never part of the team trailing him on Guadeloupe. I could film and call if an arrest needs to be made!" She seemed completely filled with enthusiasm, obviously pleased as punch he was intending to attempt to arrest this Punt fellow. Her smile was really rather nice as well, and he was reminded again of how pretty she was.

"I am sure we can arrange something, yes." She beamed, and for a second he surprised himself by returning her smile – before he realised what he was doing and put on a more professional face. "Would you like me to take you to where the Osprey nest?" He surprised himself again by offering.

"I thought you didn't like birds!" Camille cried, before Dominique could respond to his offer. "But you know where the Osprey are nesting." Well he had rather shown his hand there, hadn't he?

The Lieutenant glanced at him and must have felt sorry for him, because she decided to speak in order to save him from having to reply to Camille, "I would _love_ to see them."

"Right," he said, standing and feeling a little flustered under Camille's stare. "Let's go then, shall we?"

* * *

"You wouldn't think it would take _all_ morning to look at one nest," Camille grumbled. It was lunch time, and they had headed over to her Mother's bar for a drink and a bite to eat. She had text Richard to tell him where they were, but had yet to receive a reply. She kept glancing over her shoulder, hoping he would walk in, and was getting increasingly annoyed at herself for doing so.

"Are there any other rare birds on the island?" Dwayne asked.

"I think we have some sort of endemic species of wren, don't we? Wouldn't surprise me if that Punt fellow went after them as well. Though they are pretty well protected," Fidel told him. Camille wondered if everybody on this island knew more about birds than her. "Why, thinking of taking up bird watching?" He held up a hand when Dwayne opened his mouth to reply, "Don't make a joke about watching women already."

"I wasn't going to! I was going to say I was going to offer to show the beautiful Dominique some more of our local wildlife. That wren sounds ideal."

"I just dropped her off where you find them, actually," Richard said, appearing at the table. "You'll have to think of something else Dwayne."

"And you didn't offer to stay with her, Chief?" Dwayne knew he was being cheeky, his smile said as much.

Richard levelled him with a look, "No, because that unlike the trip to the Osprey nest, would not be directly related to work."

Dwayne leaned back, he knew when to let something go. "She has got to be the most beautiful police officer I have _ever_ seen."

Camille decided not to take offense, she did know the officer in question was prettier than her, but there was one thing she couldn't help but point out, "We do have a rather small police force, Dwayne."

"Well, true, but I'm still willing to bet she's one of the hottest police officers in the world. What do you think, Chief? The Met has got to be full of female officers, would you say Dominique is the prettiest officer you know?"

Richard was a bit distracted, trying to mentally work out how many volunteers and shifts would be necessary to protect the osprey nest, and as a consequence rather than avoid answering the question he gave an honest reply. "Close second," he said absently, then instantly regretted it. Everyone at the table was looking at him, expecting him to explain who the most attractive police officer was in his opinion. He cleared his throat, "Um, we had this PC who we used to send in undercover in rough pubs. Men would brag about crimes they had committed in order to impress her. She was, um, rather attractive." They seemed willing to accept this, which was a relief. He hadn't lied, that PC did exist, it just wasn't who he would actually put in first place…


	2. New Act in Town

Chapter 2: The New Act in Town

* * *

The woman who had walked into her bar was clearly hoping to find somebody specific there, judging by the way she looked around. Eventually she hesitantly approached Catherine and asked, in accented English that left no doubt of her origins, "Is this the bar used by the local police force?"

Catherine smiled, and answered in French, "Yes, it is, but you are a little early if you were hoping to catch them after work. They won't be here for at least an hour, but the station isn't very far away."

"Oh, that is ok," the young woman looked relived to be able to speak her mother tongue. "I could wait for them here. Inspector Poole mentioned this as where they tend to come, and I thought it might be an invitation but I wasn't _entirely_ sure. It may have just been a statement of fact."

"Interpreting Richard Poole can take significant training. You should run things past my daughter, Camille, she seems to have him ninety percent figured out!"

"You're Sergeant Bordey's mother?" She seemed genuinely shocked by the information for a moment, causing Catherine to raise a single questioning eyebrow, but then she recovered and said, "Oh, you simply look to young to have a daughter in her thirties!"

Well, Catherine thought a compliment like that deserved a free drink – so she asked the woman what she was having. "Oh, just some mango juice," she said with a small smile. "I'm a bit of a lightweight. Don't want to make a bad impression whilst I am here."

"I think I know who you are," Catherine said.

She looked up sharply, "You do?"

"Yes, they said there was a young officer over from Guadeloupe hoping to collaborate on an arrest. That is you, no?"

"Oh, right, yes you are right, that is me. My name is Dominique, and I imagine I will see you again in here – unless the team take entirely against me and never invite me out!" The poor girl must be the insecure type, she looked like it might be an actual possibility.

"Oh, I am sure that wouldn't happen, you seem like a perfectly lovely person and Camille, Dwayne and Fidel are very accepting. They have to be to put up with Richard! He might take a little longer to warm to you, just to warn you."

She gave a small laugh, "Your daughter told me the same thing."

"Yes, they hated each other at first, she is very passionate and he is exactly the opposite – as reserved as you can get, typical Englishman in every way. He seemed to entirely lack social skills, but she has had a positive influence on him in that regard." Dominique was listening intently, seemingly keen to learn more about those she would be working with, so Catherine decided to oblige. "They fight all the time still but you know, I think there is a lot of affection there these days. They have learnt to respect each other, and she seems to trust him implicitly. I really do think they are quite fond of each other. You know, perhaps I am revealing a little too much here!"

"As a detective I hope I would have figured it out," Dominique told her. "Inspector Poole does seem an interesting character, but he was perfectly nice to me this morning, if occasionally a little awkward…"

"Perhaps you made a good impression then. If you can win _him_ over, then I am sure the rest of the team will love you as well."

Dominique looked thoughtful. "I hope that is the case," she said eventually.

Catherine could understand why a young officer would want to fit in with a team, but she couldn't help but feel that considering it was (to Catherine's knowledge) a short assignment, Dominique seemed to care a little more than necessary about people liking her. Perhaps there was something else going on, maybe success on this case meant a promotion back on Guadeloupe. Or perhaps she was hoping for a transfer to Saint Marie.

"Do you have a partner?" Catherine asked suddenly, thinking perhaps he (or she, Catherine wasn't one to make assumptions) lived on Saint Marie.

"Oh no, free and single. Perhaps 'married to the job' a little." Well, that theory was out of the window, but the possible promotion one seemed likely. Catherine hoped Richard was nice to the girl, she knew that one of his better qualities was the desire to encourage young talent. Assuming Dominique was a good officer, she'd get on fine with Richard.

Excusing herself to go serve another customer, she left Dominique to her thoughts.

* * *

"I mentioned we might come here after work to Dominique," Richard surprised Camille by telling her.

"Excellent!" Dwayne cried. "I hope she is here." He rushed ahead into the bar, beaming at Dominique when he spotted her. They followed him in, and Camille couldn't notice the smile Dominique sent in the direction of Richard. One that caused him to blush for a second or two.

"Hi!" She said brightly. "I hope you don't mind me stopping by?"

The question was addressed to her and Richard (possibly more to Richard), but Dwayne fell over himself to answer before they could. "It's great to see you, we didn't get a chance to chat much earlier. So, how were the blackbirds?" He placed a hand on the small of her back and led her over to a table, where the others soon joined them.

His question received a blank look and Fidel stepped in and said, "I think he means wrens."

"Oh, yes, actually I failed to spot any. They are rather small and the vegetation is quite dense around there. Hopefully I will see them before I leave here." Dwayne opened his mouth, probably to offer to accompany her, but she turned and spoke to Richard before he could. "This place could be an option for me to meet you and pass on information, I should probably avoid the station once Punt arrives in case he spots me there and realises I am police."

Richard nodded his ascent, "I also seem to have found myself living in a beach hut miles from civilisation so you could always meet me there if needs be, we wouldn't be disturbed." It seemed to take him a few moments to realise his suggestion could be construed another way, but eventually the smirks on Fidel and Dwayne's faces clued him in. "Meet me for work matters," he clarified quickly.

Dominque just gave a small smile, indicating she had known what he meant. "I got to thinking after my failed wren viewing attempt about something I read in the Punt file. He often goes on some sort of nature tour when he arrives in a new place, probably the easiest way to find out where the birds are. I came back into the town and I managed to find out that Punt is booked onto a bird watching tour with a local company by pretending I was a friend of his and that I needed to book myself on to the same tour, got a look at the computer screen and saw they are picking him up from the Queen Elizabeth Hotel."

Richard looked impressed, "That's good work."

"Oh, I had to pull the act at three different places before I got the right one," she said modestly.

"It's still impressive," Richard insisted.

"And after all that trudging around, you must be thirsty for more than just juice! Why not come up to the bar and pick a nice rum?" This came from Dwayne who, Camille didn't fail to notice, was not offering to buy anyone else a drink. Dominique looked like she'd rather refrain from alcohol, but went up and followed him anyway.

"He is far too old for her!" Camille muttered to Richard. He looked surprised she would point it out, she had never done so before. Camille didn't want to examine her reasons for pointing it out the fact too closely.

"Camille, Dwayne knows that, but when has it ever stopped him trying?"

"Do you remember how he reacted when that sorority turned up last month?" Fidel reminded them, they all shared a smile. Dwayne had never looked happier than when he had been surrounded by a bunch of twenty something blonde American girls all terribly impressed by his uniform.

"Dwayne is right about her being beautiful," Camille said, studying the woman more closely. "I imagine she gets a lot of unwanted male attention."

"Well, she strikes me as the sort of woman who can look after herself," Richard said.

"What, and I you can think I can't?" She snapped, receiving shocked looks from both Fidel and Richard.

"I didn't say that!" He said, defending himself.

"Well, I suppose you didn't," Camille admitted. She wasn't really sure what was wrong with her. When she had met Dominique in the market, she had seemed like a nice if nervous young police officer. But now she had observed her a bit more, her instincts were telling her she should be wary. She just needed to figure out why.


	3. Putting on an Act

Chapter 3: Putting on an Act

* * *

Richard couldn't help but note how well Dominique seemed to fit into the group, smiling and joking with an ease he was still trying to achieve after a year of being on Saint Marie. When he thought about it though, she seemed to largely fill the gap left by Camille that evening – who was unusually subdued. He had kept stealing glances at her, trying to figure out what was wrong with her, and they had all made an effort to get her to engage at some point before seemingly silently agreeing to leave her to her own devices.

On the way home, he reviewed his behaviour that day – trying to figure out what he had done to upset her. Camille was such a wonderfully upbeat, optimistic, affable person who only ever seemed to get upset by him, so it seemed inevitable that if she was in a bad mood he was responsible. Perhaps his mistake was in not inviting her over to listen in when Dominique originally arrived. He glanced at her, she was concentrating on the road, and wondered if he should apologise now. He hesitated because if he was wrong and that was not the reason she was upset, apologising for the wrong thing would make her angrier. It also felt like too much time had passed from the incident to venture an apology now.

Richard let out a long breath, causing Camille to glance at him. He decided to bring up the plans for the next day, "We should go to the hotel where Dominque is staying to see her before she goes out on that nature walk. Punt is on the first ferry over and has early check in at the hotel where they are picking him up."

"Why do we need to see her?" Camille asked, a little bluntly and definitely still in a mood with him.

"Oh, um, well she hasn't done anything 'undercover' before. And, well, since you are rather experienced and very good at undercover work I thought you could give her some advice," Richard was hoping she would pick up on the compliment, and she did seem to brighten up a bit.

"Right, yes, she'll need not to draw any attention to herself and considering how pretty she is that could be a problem. We'll have to ugly her up a bit." She seemed quite enthusiastic now. Richard couldn't envision a method to "ugly up" Dominique, but he imagined Camille must know a few tricks as she would surely have had to disguise her own beauty on occasion. He thought about telling her that, but then she might realise he actually thought she was beautiful, and he wasn't sure he was ready for her to know that yet. Or possibly ever.

"I'll pick you up at 06:30!" She called out the window of the jeep before pulling off. Richard thought that was a bit early, but supposed that perhaps Dominique would need _a lot _of uglying up. He decided to text her on the number she had supplied him with to warn her how early they would be arriving.

* * *

Camille turned up a little early, sort of half hoping to catch Richard in his pyjamas. They were hardly the sexiest outfit on the planet, but she still loved seeing him in them. He didn't even seem embarrassed by them. She wasn't in luck, he was already dressed and necking the remainders of his orange juice.

"Are you ready?" She asked. She knew it was a little evil, but she was taking pleasure from the idea that she was going to get the opportunity to reduce Dominque's beauty a fraction. Perhaps it would teach _certain_ people about beauty only being skin deep, and how women have many other important qualities, like compassion and intelligence and…other traits Dominique seemed to also have in abundance.

Mentally shaking herself as she got behind the wheel of the Defender, Camille vowed to grow up a bit.

"Since we are arriving so early maybe we should stop and grab something to bring her to eat for breakfast," Richard suggested as he did up his seatbelt. The vow she had just made immediately went out of the window. Richard could just be such a _man_ sometimes. Faced by a beautiful woman he fancied he immediately became considerate and thoughtful whilst _she_ had to put up with his griping and snippiness with no traces of chivalry at all.

"Oh I'm sure she can feed herself. Besides why would you get _her_ breakfast just because it is early? You have to pick me up early for cases sometimes and I don't see you presenting _me_ with breakfast!"

"I did last week!" He protested, and Camille realised that actually, he had. She'd been quite pleased at the time as well. And it also wasn't the only time. Richard was now looking at her like he had no clue why she was behaving this way, which was good, because she wasn't entirely sure why she couldn't get a handle on her mood either. "Um, if you haven't eaten I can get you something as well…" He offered hesitantly.

"I've had breakfast," she snapped back immediately. Which was an outright lie, but she didn't want him buying her some sort of pity croissant.

* * *

"Wow," Richard said, when Dominique opened the door to her hotel room. He wasn't stunned by her beauty, but rather the complete transformation from Dwayne's "most attractive police officer ever" into a dowdy, slightly grubby 'twitcher'. Next to him, Camille seemed equally taken aback. "You look…the part," he offered. He had very nearly said "awful". He briefly wondered if she had stayed up all night to achieve the haggard look, then realised there was an awful lot of make up on the dressing table and she had probably somehow achieved it that way.

"Oh I know," Dominique said with a small smile. "I didn't want to draw any attention to myself so I have made an effort to look as much like a, um, _indéfinissable_?" She looked to Camille expectantly, who after a significant pause supplied 'nondescript'. "Yes, _merci, _a nondescript bird watcher."

"We needn't have come so early," Richard said with a smile, he was really quite impressed. "You said you had never been undercover so I thought Camille might be able to give some advice, but looks like you have it under control!"

Dominique turned to Camille, "Oh no if you do have any tips I'd really appreciate it. I'm sure there is loads you can teach me."

Camille, who had seemed so keen the night before, now looked a little reluctant to Richard. But in an instant that look was gone, and she was smiling and nodding and perching herself on the edge if the bed as she spouted off various tips and Dominique listened keenly. Richard thought he had probably just imagined her reluctance, or that Camille was tired and it had just taken her a moment to cotton on.

Because, quite frankly, who wouldn't want to work with Dominique?

* * *

"Have you ever worked in wildlife crime before?" Dominique asked.

They were sitting on his porch having a beer. Richard and Camille had spent the day investigating a fraud and once they were in the throes of the investigation Camille had seemed to cheer up and go back to her usual self. Well nearly her normal self – she was oddly nice to him all day, paying him quite a lot of attention. Several times he had expected her to berate him for moaning about the heat, or complaining about the quality of the tea they were served at the bank, but instead she was sympathetic. He really should be used to her mood swings by now, but he wasn't and he feared he would never understand her, or know what she was thinking. It was actually a relief when she dropped him off and he could stop worrying about it, though here she was on his mind again.

"Richard?" Dominique asked, reminding him he had a question to answer.

"Oh, um, no not really. You don't get too much of it in the centre of London. Maybe if I'd been with one of the rural forces."

Dominique had stopped by to give him the rundown of the day's events, and then stayed for a few beers. She was full of enthusiasm to learn, had been plying him with all sorts of questions about The Met and English law, and he had been happy to answer them. To his surprise, he had also answered some of the more personal questions she had asked – about his university days and the small village in Leicestershire where he had grown up. Richard wasn't sure _why_ he kept talking, this was not the usual sort of information he shared, but there was something comfortable about being with Dominique – something almost familiar, and he felt that there would be no repercussions from sharing.

"Well, parts of Saint Marie are rural, I think!" She said with a smile. "It must be very different from working in London."

"Yeah, well, the rest of the team will tell you I complain about those differences a lot. Don't tell them but there are a lot of things I've learnt to like about here, that I'd miss if I had to leave," he admitted.

"Like the people," she guessed, and guessed correctly. The island was beautiful, yes, but it was the people here who had made it feel like home. He didn't respond though, as that _did_ seem like too personal a thing to admit. She accepted his silence as affirmation though. "It's funny, you and Camille seem very different, but I assume you must work well together?"

"Well, we have our differences," he said, rather diplomatically. "But we do seem to work well together otherwise. She has skills I lack, and I've come to rely upon her for those skills."

"What skills?"

"Well, she can…well, she is a bit like you really," he said, realising it was true. "Good at the social stuff, putting witnesses at ease and reading them and stuff. I think you too would probably get on it you got to know each other."

"You do?" Dominique said, looking hopeful. Richard thought that perhaps she admired Camille, especially after the 'under cover' lessons she had been given that morning.

"Well yes, from the stuff you've been talking about you seem to have a lot in common. She studied psychology at university as well. And is interested in nature and…stuff like that."

"I've obviously met Catherine, her mother, who is lovely. What does her Dad do?"

Richard was surprised by the question and was curious as to why she would want to know, so he asked her exactly that. "Nature versus nurture," she replied, which just puzzled him. "I am not saying we are related or anything, it's just you said we were alike. My mother works in a bar as well and I thought maybe there were other, how do you say, similarities to our upbringing."

"Well, you should probably ask Camille about herself," he told her, Richard didn't really feel comfortable sharing too much information about Camille. He was also worried he might reveal too much about _himself_ when talking about his DS. There was one tip he was willing to give her, "Though, her Dad isn't around and hasn't been for a long time, so I would steer clear of that subject."

"Yes, I will do that."

There then followed a slightly awkward pause, which Richard eventually broke, "Oh, um, sorry do you want another beer?"

"I am not sure I should have beer but could I please have a glass of water?"

He went to fetch her one and when he returned found she was no longer alone on the porch. Camille was there, and it looked like she had just arrived. It wasn't that unusual for her to drop by of an evening, for some reason Dominique looked a bit embarrassed and Camille gave him a look like he had something to explain.

"Dominique came by to brief me on how the nature walk went," he told her. She didn't look any happier, and he felt bad because he had not invited her in when she had dropped him off earlier. But after her odd behaviour throughout the day he had just needed a little time alone, and it didn't mean he wasn't happy to see her now. No matter how belligerent he might act, deep down he was always happy to see her.

"Right," she said simply.

"I was just going to have a little of the water and then head off," Dominique informed them, still looking awkward.

"I'll walk back with you," Camille said suddenly, surprising both Richard and his guest.

Dominique was pleasantly surprised though, probably hoping to pick up a few more hints and get to know Camille better, "Okay, yes, that would be nice." She forgot about having any water at all, and gathered up her stuff. "Shall we walk along the beach?"

Camille nodded her agreement, heading down the steps without a backwards glance. Dominique gave him a cheerful farewell wave, "Thanks for the beer!"

As he watched them walk away, Richard did his best to suppress his disappointment.

* * *

A/N: Had trouble with this chapter, but I think it came out ok in the end. I thought Camille might be getting jealous a little too much too quickly, but then I decided she just has it really bad and hasn't actually realised it fully yet! I am away at a conference next week, and then moving house, so don't expect any updates for a while, though I may get another chapter out of something tomorrow.


End file.
